Noodles, Prime, Buffet Time!
The moment we stepped off our flight from Vegas, I could feel the humidity in the air. We weren't even outside. There's a pervasive wetness that permeates your clothes. It's a subtle dampness that makes you feel hot even though it's only 70 degrees.
Our flight was delayed by thirty minutes due to trouble with getting water on our plane, but Chris thought it was something else. They lie about major problems on the plane so as not to frighten anyone. I like to think that there was something wrong with the plumbing and not, say, the engine. Let me live in my fantasy land.
Vegas was a lot of fun, but I think three whole days was more than enough for us. Any more than that and you'd end up being bored and scrounging for things to do. Vegas does have plenty of places to eat at though, and there's definitely never enough time for that.
We ate at several places. One of them was Noodles, which is a chinese food restaurant. They have an abbreviated dim sum menu during the weekends, which I had. I don't have a decent place for dim sum here. There's Ming Court, which has like 1/4 of a real dim sum place and you order it off the menu, not off carts. And then there's this other restaurant I've never bothered to go to because they serve cold dim sum. There's just no point in that. So I spent a little extra money for that. I only ever get good dim sum when I visit my parents. And I also had a beef noodle dish that was also absolutely yummy.
What we noticed was that there were a lot more chinese food restaurants in the hotels since we last visited a few years ago. Every major hotel seemed to have one. Noodles in the Bellagio had chinese food that you wouldn't normally get at an Americanized restaurant (they served varieties of Congee, for instance). It was also conveniently located near the Pai Gow tables. I also noticed that there were a lot more signs with Chinese on them.
There were also a lot more foreigners in Vegas than I remembered. I heard several different languages while riding the elevator from French, to Italian, to Russian and yet another language I couldn't place.
We also ate at Prime, a steakhouse in the Bellagio. They are downstairs at water level, so if you're lucky, you can sit by the windows and watch the fountains. I didn't know that they had a balcony that you could eat at, but it could also be just for special occassions. There was a private party outside that I thought would have been lovely to sit at and eat. A long time ago, I ate at Olives on the patio and it was great to be able to eat dinner and watch the fountains. But that wasn't to be the case this time. We sat near the window, but not at the window. The people sitting at the window didn't even bother to look when the fountains were on. Those seats were totally wasted on them.
We also ate at the Bellagio lunch buffet. I ate too much. And those that know me, know that's something I manage to do often. But I really did eat too much at the buffet. The problem being that I wanted to sample everything they had. I didn't pile things on my plate. I took a little bit of everything. I still didn't taste everything and my stomach was bloated. But at least I didn't throw up. I kept it all down! The second time we went, however, I knew what I wanted and I ate just the right amount. They have a really good flank steak and delicious desserts. Chris liked the soft serve with chocolate syrup. He's so cute. He misses the buffet. We don't have good one's here in Orlando. At least not like the Bellagio one. The buffet was, not surprising, less than going to a sit down place to eat. Vegas has pricey food!
We also ate at Chinois, Wolfgang Puck's asian restaurant. It has a mix of Chinese and Japanese foods. I tell you what. That is the last time I eat at any Wolfgang Puck restaurant. We ate at Spago's before and the meatloaf tasted like seasoned taco meat. It gave me indigestion. At Chinois, I had fried tofu. Gave me such bad indigestion, I couldn't sleep at night. I have forever sworn off any Wolfgang Puck restaurant. I no longer wish to stay up late at night because of stomach troubles.
There's also a lovely crepe place in the Bellagio called Jean-Philipe Patisserie. They had this delicious turkey sandwich croissant with cranberry jelly. I tell you what, so worth the $10 for the sandwich. We got another one to go for the plane ride home. We were flying from 4:40p.m. to 12:10a.m. so we knew we'd be skipping lunch due to the flight. It was consumed heartily on the plane. So we are home in Orlando. And I already miss the Vegas food.